“For a fashion museum, the most important pieces are not necessarily the fancy embroidered dresses, it’s often an everyday kind of outfit,” mused curator Olivier Saillard, director of the Palais Galliera, of his latest exhibition, “Anatomy of a Collection.”

Building on last year’s exhibition of the Countess Greffulhe’s clothing, “Anatomy of a Collection” offers up a survey of fashion through pieces that still carry their wearers’ memory. Comprising 100 or so items, this is as close to a virtual tour of the museum’s 5,000-square-meter archives as most of us can ever hope to come.

“A prototype might live for 10 minutes on a runway. A wedding gown is worn once, and then lives on in a box. Work clothing that’s worn throughout a lifetime has an extra bit of soul,” Saillard continued. “Here, we wanted to bring together pieces that otherwise never would have kept company with each other.”

Spanning four centuries, “Anatomy of a Collection” is mostly comprised of clothes worn by historical figures, high society and stars of stage and screen, from Marie Antoinette and the young dauphin—a corset and shirt of touching simplicity—to Empress Joséphine Bonaparte, Sarah Bernhardt, Audrey Hepburn, and the Duchess of Windsor. But it also includes lesser-known princesses, forgotten courtisanes and actresses, models, fashion insiders, and others who are very much alive and well. Most of the clothes have pedigrees, such as Christian Dior’s creations for Mitzah Bricard and a wedding gown for his goddaughter Geneviève Page; Yves Saint Laurent’s 1968 jumpsuit for Betty Catroux; Hubert de Givenchy’s creations for Hepburn; Madeleine Vionnet’s own dress; and creations by Balenciaga, Poiret, Chanel, and Grès for couture clients. Other items, such as a peacock and ermine muff belonging to a niece of Napoleon Bonaparte, are so exceptional they rarely see the light of day.

Still other pieces and their designers are anonymous or forgotten. Among these are a florist’s apron, repatched worker’s trousers from the 19th century that would not look out of place on the runway today, and a nurse’s uniform dating to the First World War.

Rounding out the show is a lineup of recent creations: a gold pajama suit by Haider Ackermann that Tilda Swinton wore to Cannes; Jean Paul Gaultier’s “conical breasts” dress in orange velvet from 1984; a “Coco Chanel” dress by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac worn by Inès de la Fressange—each bearing meaty commentary by their wearers. “I don’t have lots of outfits—I have a single way of being,” writes Michèle Lamy of a dress made for her by her husband, Rick Owens. Further along stands a white python dress by Alaïa, donated by Carla Sozzani. “This is the dress I feel best in,” she writes. “It’s my second skin . . . my friend, like Azzedine, my best friend.”

“If Carla wasn’t donating her wardrobe to the Alaïa foundation, it’s one I’d fight to get,” commented Saillard. Also on the curator’s short list are a former Martin Margiela assistant who is said to have 13 containers of Margiela clothes in storage somewhere, and the wardrobe of Alaïa’s studio director Caroline Fabre-Bazin, whose collection famously has its own apartment. “The museum that scores Caroline’s wardrobe has contemporary fashion covered,” Saillard said. In the meantime, the “encyclopedia of being” created by fashion legends and those who wore their clothes will be on show at the Palais Galliera through October 23.